Advisory Panel: End NSA Surveillance Program

An outside advisory panel Thursday will say that the bulk data collection program run by the National Security Agency is illegal and should be halted.

A summary of a report to be issued Thursday by the bipartisan five-member board said:

Section 215 the Patriot Act “does not provide an adequate legal basis” to support the NSA’s collection of records of telephone calls.

The NSA program violates a federal law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act which prohibits telephone companies from giving customer records to the government except in response to a specific search warrant.

The data collection done under the program “has shown minimal value in safeguarding the nation from terrorism.” The board members said that based on the classified briefings and documents they received, “we have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation.”

The board was created by Congress in 2007 to recommend policies to balance protecting the country from terrorism with ensuring privacy and civil liberties.